Girls high school basketball continues to grow around the state of Texas and Conroe is proud of its annual November tradition that brings together teams for three days of basketball.
This year is the 75th edition of the Conroe Lady Tigers Classic and head coach Tamisha Houston, now in her 11th year as head coach, is excited to get things going.
It starts with a helpful and supporting administration at Conroe and Houston is thankful for that.
“Girls basketball is becoming a big thing, so they’ve really embraced us having the tournament,” she said.
Conroe (2-0) plays its first game at noon on Thursday against Dekaney (0-2).
It’s the second year for Conroe to show off its new facility – the glimmering competition gym, ‘The Pit’, and the pair of auxiliary gyms await the first day of action before it expands to five gyms on Friday and Saturday.
“Everybody just comes in and are so amazed and (they say) it’s so beautiful and you have three gyms,” Houston said. “It’s become a very popular place and everyone wants to come use it. It’s been nice to have people come in here and see the nice things the community has provided for us, given we had the oldest gyms in the district.”
With the new spaces to play games, the tournament expanded last season. There will be 72 total games played in three days.
“When we opened this facility, I thought ‘let’s make it bigger,’” Houston said. “So we added 16 more teams so now we’re up to 32. We start it a little earlier during the day so now we have basketball games all day.
“The kids enjoy it and they (the visiting teams) enjoy being able to get to travel to other schools and play. It’s been good.”
Things went pretty smoothly last year after previously operating with 16 teams, mostly from the Houston area.
“Last year was the first year with 32 teams, so that was a little frightening,” Houston said. “But everything went fine aside from me having to play back-to-back, which I didn’t realize it until day of. We run three gyms on Thursday and then Friday and Saturday, we run all five – three here (at the high school) and two at the freshman campus.”
The expansion called for earlier game times, which Conroe will play during the middle of the school day.
The field now features Georgetown, San Antonio Sotomayor, Hardin-Jefferson, United Laredo, Bryan, Beaumont West Brook and Harlingen coming from outside of the Houston area.
Class 6A regional semifinalist Cypress Lakes and Class 5A state semifinalist Richmond Randle are in the field as well as Hardin-Jefferson, a Class 4A regional quarterfinalist.
Conroe comes in with some momentum. They took a road win at Magnolia West last Friday and opened the home slate by holding off Lake Creek 55-54 Tuesday night.
Junior Riley Gross is averaging 17.5 points per game so far while senior Alisa Sneed has scored 11 points in both games, respectively. The Tigers have also seen a spark from underclassmen Carly Boothe and Kayleigh Phillips.
The three-day event is a tremendous opportunity for Houston and her staff to evaluate the team.
“We’re looking for growth and – with us starting district November 19th – we’re looking to work out the kinks,” Houston said. “Yes, it’s great if you can make the championship and win. But after so many years, it’s just about getting so many games in and you can work on so many things early. That really just gives you satisfaction. If you can get better, it’s all worth it.”
After Thursday’s opener, the Tigers will play at 9 a.m. Friday against the winner or loser of Kingwood and Katy Tompkins. If in the winner’s bracket, Conroe would then play at either 1:30 p.m. or 3 p.m.
Games can be streamed on BallerTV.
Conroe senior Saterria Poehlein (11) defends against Lake Creek on Nov. 5, 2024. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
